Formative assessment and feedback: Making learning visible

The study explores how assessment information is received and attended to. The research is linked to a 2-year intervention project involving six Norwegian upper secondary schools, and with a particular focus on vocational training and the three core subjects: English, Norwegian and Mathematics. Survey data was collected from five schools, including both vocationally and academically oriented education. Other sources of data are focus-group interviews in three of the five schools, involving students, teachers and school leaders. Findings show that there are significant differences in how students and teachers perceive feedback practices. There are also significant differences between boys and girls, as well as within the various school subjects. Students experience more feedback in vocational training than in the more traditional academic subjects.

► Teachers rate the quality of their feedback higher than students do.
► Feedback is linked to grading of completed assignments, not to work in progress.
► There is more feedback in vocational training than in academic subjects.
► Classroom-teaching and learning-activities are potentially rich on feedback.
► Interactional and learning situations need to be exploited as feedback settings.